THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
An upcoming exhibition in Cologne is set to shed light on the often overlooked contributions and experiences of countries of the Global South during World War II.
Titled “The Third World in the Second World War” (Die Dritte Welt Im Zweiten Weltkrieg), this expanded showcase will run from 8 March to 1 June 2025 at the NS Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne (NS-DOK). The exhibition aims to highlight the significant yet underrepresented role that nations from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Oceania, played during the global conflict.
In fact, more soldiers from the Global South fought in World War II than those from Western Europe. Both the Axis powers and the Allies recruited troops and labourers from their colonies, often through coercion. Vast regions in these countries served as battlefields, and many remained devastated and littered with landmines long after the war ended.
China alone suffered more casualties than the fascist powers responsible for the war — Germany, Italy and Japan— combined. Hundreds of thousands of women were victims of sexual violence. And during the liberation of the Philippine capital, Manila, in 1944, more people died from bombings than in Dresden, Berlin or Cologne.
Despite the profound impact of the war in the Global South, these narratives have been largely absent from mainstream historical accounts.
The initiative to bring these stories to the forefront began in the 1990s with the Rhineland Journalists’ Office in Cologne. After a decade of research across 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Oceania, the project culminated in the 2005 publication of the German-language book “Unsere Opfer zählen nicht” (“Our Victims Don’t Count”). This was followed by educational materials in 2008 and a travelling exhibition in 2009, which has since been showcased in over 60 venues across Germany and Switzerland. An English version has toured South Africa since 2017, and a Portuguese rendition was created for Mozambique in 2020.
The upcoming exhibition in Cologne will feature artistic reflections from Africa, Asia and Oceania on the war’s aftermath. Additionally, a comprehensive accompanying program of over 30 events is planned, including lectures, readings, theater performances and a film series with international guests. Notably, a hip-hop dance performance from France will explore the experiences of colonial soldiers in both World Wars.
The exhibition will be inaugurated on 7 March 2025, with online versions available in German, English, French, and Portuguese. The historical materials gathered during the project will remain accessible at the Archive for Alternative Literature (afas) in Duisburg.
For more details on the exhibition and its events, visit the official website: https://www.3www2.de.
This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to delve into a neglected chapter of World War II history, emphasizing the global nature of the conflict and the pivotal roles played by nations of the Global South.
